Polemic in Greek art and architecture

At the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, as indeed within all religious sanctuaries of the Greeks, dedications to the god, once placed within the sanctuary, could not be removed, as they became the property of that god. Such dedications would be offered in honour of the god, but, equally importantly, in order to commemorate publicly an achievement – be it military, sporting, political or cultural – of the dedicator. Delphi was perhaps a singularly important and attractive place to erect such a dedication, both because of its key historical role in Greek culture and events, and because any such monument would subsequently be seen by a large regular crowd of worshippers coming to consult the oracle or take part in the regular Pythian games. At the same time these dedications were, because of the steep mountain landscape on which the sanctuary was set, cramped together onto prebuilt terraces. The impact of this was to ensure that dedications were clustered much more tightly together than at other comparable sanctuaries. Delphi thus offers a case study in which works of art and architecture, set up by a wide range of individuals, cities, and states, commemorating nearly every key moment in Greek history, politics and culture, jostled in close confines with one another over an extended time period, creating a vibrant monumental artistic and architectural storyboard of Greek history, politics and culture. It was in these conditions, I will argue, that the art and architecture of these dedications developed a subtle and evolving polemical dynamic of their own, focused on how to understand the past and the roles played in it by the different dedicators